Op-Ed: Russia Shooting Down US Drone Belligerent, But Not Worth War

This article originally appeared in Newsmax on March 16, 2023

Earlier this week, Russian fighter jets harassed and downed an American MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone over the Black Sea, in international airspace.

Russian planes dumped fuel on the drone and clipped its propeller, forcing its American operators to bring it down in international waters.

Was this a belligerent and war-like act?

Yes.

Is this a reason for the United States to risk starting a war with Russia, possibly by shooting down Russian fighters that approach U.S. air assets over international waters, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has called for?

Absolutely not.

We saw a similar situation in June of 2019 after Iran shot down an American drone over the Persian Gulf.

Most of then-President Trump’s national security advisers urged him to approve the bombing of Iranian radars and missile batteries in response to the drone shootdown.

However, at the last minute, after Trump learned that 100 to 200 Iranians could be killed by a U.S. attack, he called it off.

Trump said he called it off  because possible Iranian fatalities would not have been proportionate to shooting down an unarmed U.S. drone...

Read full op-ed in Newsmax